Competing wage measure may die

Supporters need thousands more signatures as deadline looms

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO  Prospects have dimmed for a minimum wage ballot measure that supporters have touted as more business-friendly than the local pay increases City Council President Todd Gloria is pursuing.

With only a few days left before petitions must be submitted to the San Diego City Clerk, the leading proponent says she’s collected about one-third of the nearly 68,000 signatures required to get the measure on the November ballot.

Meanwhile, Gloria says he’s continuing to privately discuss possible compromises one week after agreeing to seek a smaller minimum wage increase — to $11.50 an hour over the next three years instead of $13.09.

Gloria said Wednesday that the council must decide by late July whether his proposal will be a ballot measure or an ordinance. The portions increasing the minimum wage and granting workers five days of paid sick leave might be adopted as separate ordinances because of concerns opponents could reverse the legislation with a referendum, he said.

The competing minimum wage measure, which unlike Gloria’s proposal would exempt employees receiving tips and businesses with less than 25 workers, was intended primarily to stir up dialogue, said Blanca Lopez-Brown, the woman spearheading the effort.

When Lopez-Brown submitted the measure in early April, Gloria hadn’t revealed how much he proposed increasing the city’s minimum wage above what the state requires, which will rise from $8 an hour to $9 on Tuesday and to $10 in 2016.

“It was so vague and it had so much potential to damage small businesses,” said Lopez-Brown, a Lemon Grove School District trustee who’s run unsuccessfully twice for a seat on San Diego’s council representing District 4.

Lopez-Brown praised Gloria for agreeing last week to sharply lower the proposed wage hike, but said she still objects to his plan to offer part-time workers sick leave, suggesting only full-timers should be eligible.

While she’s far below the number of signatures needed, Lopez-Brown said she’s been told other people who support the measure have been circulating petitions independently.

“I don’t know who they are, but I hope they get in touch with me,” she said.

She would need 67,731 registered voters — 10 percent of the 677,310 San Diego voters registered for the last general election in 2012 — in the next few days.

Ballot measures must be submitted by Aug. 8, but before that can happen the Registrar of Voters must validate the signatures, which can take up to 30 days. In addition, the measure would have to be submitted to the City Council, which could take 10 days or more to decide whether to adopt it or put it on the ballot.

In contrast, Gloria’s proposal could be placed on the ballot with a simple majority vote of the council.

If both measures appear on the ballot, which ever receives the most votes would prevail. If Gloria’s plan becomes an ordinance, Lopez-Brown’s ballot measure would legally trump it if approved by voters in November.

Gloria said compromise discussions on his proposal have shifted to whether the city’s minimum wage should be indexed to inflation, which his plan would do beginning in January 2019 — 18 months after it would climb to $11.50 in July 2017.

The goal is making the increases more predictable for businesses, while allowing workers to keep up with increases in the local cost of living.

Gloria said the council is sharply divided on a ballot measure versus an ordinance. He said dividing the plan into two ordinances would make it more difficult for opponents to overturn with a referendum, which happened earlier this month to the council-approved Barrio Logan Community Plan.